There’s been a number of changes around these pages recently. Some of them long overdue (I can never find the time to really sit down and tidy up around here), and some of them were… well just because I felt like it.

Recently, my good friend and expert blogger Dick Puddlecote considered these pages worthy enough to be nominated for Martin Scriblerus - a group of truly excellent bloggers that all share a similar vein of written excellence.

It never ceases to amaze me how ludicrous these anti-smoker folk are. Not simply content with banning smoking (and of course in some cases vaping too) indoors in bars, pubs and all the other fun places that we like to attend, now they’re taking aim at the great outdoors.

It’s not the first time, Swansea held a consultation, which they subsequently ignored. Pembrokeshire council made a beach smokefree (which of course included vaping), Bristol has a “voluntary ban” (complete with oh so cute sign posts) - arguably they were “the first” to do such a bonkers notion.

Thanks to Sarah Jakes, a short two-page document from ASH Scotland found its way into my twitter timeline. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, it’s all about youth and e-cigs. I had a read. I had another read. I had a third read. They also have a short blog post on the subject. I read that too. Then I read it again.

There isn’t really much to the document in itself, page one is primarily background stuff, while page two gets to the heart of the matter. Or at least tries to. It is a masterclass in fence-sitting.

I’m pretty sure we’ve been down this road before. The whole formaldehyde scare - leading to the “10 times more cancer causing chemicals” headlines. That particular study (which started life in the NEJM as a letter to the editor) has been roundly debunked - not least of which because to inhale burning e-liquid, is frankly a rather dumb idea. Any researcher that believes us vapers do that on a regular basis, most definitely need to get out more.

When I was doing (part) of my write up of the Global Forum on Nicotine conference, I mentioned that I might have had something special coming up. As most of you should know by now, A Billion Lives - directed by Aaron Biebert - has premiered in New Zealand, Australia and of course Poland. Now, on August 6th A Billion Lives is coming home.

The film has garnered some well deserved accolades, a lot of attention, and has been reviewed by numerous critics and been called “A wake up call”. I had the honour of meeting Aaron, albeit briefly, at the Poland premiere, and like many others who have seen the film have been mightily impressed with how Aaron has directed the film, and I truly wish I could get across to the US to see it again at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee.

I mentioned in a previous post that a certain Canadian MD - none other than Matthew Stanbrook, by far the most ideological and idiotic anti-vaper “researcher” there is, who claims that “e-cigarettes are a gateway that must be shut” - has had an opinion piece published, alongside a certain study, which is now getting some media attention. Hardly surprising really. Most notably (so far) is his mention in a Medscape article.

I’ve touched on this briefly a few times before (here, here and most recently here) and it’s all about smoking/vaping in the workplace in particular, and anywhere else in public in general. As many readers will know Public Health England recently released some guidance on the “Use of e-cigarettes in public places and workplaces”.

Before I go much further, let me remind you of a comment that had been left on one of my posts about this particularly thorny subject:

“Teenagers smoke e-cigarettes because they deem them ‘cool and fun’, alarming report claims” - makes for an interesting, click bait type headline doesn’t it? So what is all the fuss about? Well as you would expect a new “study” from Canada has been released - with an accompanying op-ed from none other than Matthew Stanbrook, by far the most ideological and idiotic anti-vaper “researcher” there is, who claims that “e-cigarettes are a gateway that must be shut”. More on that later in the post.

I’ve been mulling this over in my head ever since the first vaping bans were imposed by businesses such as Wetherspoons. I kept thinking to myself why? Was it down to simply banning something that “looks like smoking” - after all there is a comprehensive policy in place across the UK in that smoking is not allowed/prohibited/banned in work places, public places (bars/pubs/clubs/public buildings etc), smoking is now prohibited in cars with kids in (not that it’s being enforced - after all, the police have far better things to do). There’s even calls for smoking bans (inclusive of e-cigarettes) in parks - the US, and New York in particular are fond of their smoke-free parks, completely ignoring the fumes from the multitude of internal combustion engines.

You will of course remember a ridiculous “study” from last year (covered neatly by Clive Bates here) that spread far and wide about alcohol being related to e-cig use. That one of course came from up north - Liverpool to be exact, and who do we know in Liverpool that doesn’t like e-cigarettes?

Well it would seem some researchers over in Texas don’t like e-cigarettes much either (to be fair, not many researchers in the US like them, but that’s by the by). Strangely enough, this particular study made it to the journal around the same time as the one from Liverpool. Coincidence? I think not. What is strange is why it is only now getting press-time. By press time I mean an article in the Daily Fail (where else?).